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Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland
Kapitel 3:
A caucus-race and a long tale, Lewis Carroll, Seite 4 ( von 4 )
"You are not attending!" said the Mouse to Alice, severely.
"What are you thinking of?"
"I beg your pardon," said Alice very humbly: "you had got to the
fifth bend, I think?"
"I had not!" cried
the Mouse, sharply and very angrily.
"A knot!" said Alice, always ready to make herself useful, and
looking anxiously about her. "Oh, do let me help to undo it!"
"I shall do nothing of the sort," said the Mouse, getting up and
walking away. "You insult me by talking such nonsense!"
"I didn't mean it!" pleaded poor Alice. "But you're so easily
offended, you know!"
The Mouse only growled in reply.
"Please come back, and finish your story!" Alice called after it; and
the others all joined in chorus, "Yes, please do!" but the Mouse only
shook its head impatiently, and walked a little quicker.
"What a pity it wouldn't stay!" sighed the Lory, as soon as it was
quite out of sight; and an old Crab took the opportunity of saying to her
daughter "Ah, my dear! Let this be a lesson to you never to lose
your
temper!" "Hold your tongue, Ma!" said the young Crab, a little
snappishly. "You're enough to try the patience of an oyster!"
"I wish I had our Dinah here, I know I do!" said Alice aloud,
addressing nobody in particular. "She'd soon fetch it back!"
"And who is Dinah, if I might venture to ask the question?" said the
Lory.
Alice replied eagerly, for she was always ready to talk about her pet:
"Dinah's our cat. And she's such a capital one for catching mice, you
can't think! And oh, I wish you could see her after the birds! Why, she'll eat
a little bird as soon as look at it!"
This speech caused a remarkable sensation among the party. Some of the birds
hurried off at once: one old Magpie began wrapping itself up very carefully,
remarking, "I really must be getting home; the night-air doesn't suit my
throat!" and a Canary called out in a trembling voice to its children,
"Come away, my dears! It's high time you were all in bed!" On various
pretexts they all moved off, and Alice was soon left alone.
"I wish I hadn't mentioned Dinah!" she said to herself in a
melancholy tone. "Nobody seems to like her, down here, and I'm sure she's
the best cat in the world! Oh, my dear Dinah! I wonder if I shall ever see you
any more!" And here poor Alice began to cry again, for she felt very
lonely and low-spirited. In a little while, however, she again heard a little
pattering of footsteps in the distance, and she looked up eagerly, half hoping
that the Mouse had changed his mind, and was coming back to finish his story.
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